Essentials of the Faith - Pt 7

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. (Luke 17:5-6 ESV).

In our reading today the apostles ask Jesus to increase their faith. The way he responds shows us that faith comes by hearing; and, knowing certain things should increase our faith. First, he says that the crucial issue in accomplishing great things to advance the kingdom of God is not the quantity of our faith, but the power of God. By referring to the tiny mustard seed after being asked about increased faith, he deflects attention away from the quantity of faith to the object of faith. It is God who moves mulberry trees. And it does not depend decisively on the quantity of our faith, but on his power and wisdom and love. In knowing this we are helped not to worry about our faith and are inspired to trust God’s free initiative and power. Second, he helps our faith to grow by showing the relationship between what we do and dependence on grace. In the next few verse Jesus gives an illustration (vv. 7-10). The gist of it is that the owner of a slave does not become a debtor to the slave no matter how much work the slave does. The meaning is that God is never our debtor. We are always his debtor. And we will never be able to pay this debt, nor are we ever meant to. We will always be dependent on grace. We will never work our way up out of debt to a place where God is in our debt (cf. Romans 11:35). We should also note that the idiom for “thank” is provocative in this verse. I think the idea is that “thanks” is a response to grace. The reason the owner does not thank the slave is that the servant is not giving the owner more than what the owner deserves. He is not treating the owner with grace. Grace is being treated better than you deserve. So it is with us in relation to God. We never treat God with grace. We never give him more than he deserves, which means that he never owes us thanks. God never says “Thank you” to us. Instead he is always giving us more than what we deserve, and we always owe him more than we can thank him for. This is a great encouragement to faith. It is clear that God is just as free to bless us before we get our act together as he is after. Since we are “unworthy” slaves before we have done what we should, and “unworthy” slaves afterwards as well, it is only grace that would prompt God to help us. Therefore he is free to help us before and after. This is a great incentive to trust him for help when we feel like our act is not together. For me that’s most of the time!